Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Big loose diamonds float on a golden ground, with small bowties in the gaps.

This Shoowa prestige panel is Kuba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is piled raffia. Kuba textiles were woven and embroidered to be worn, gifted and buried with the dead, long before collectors hung them on walls. Wide outlined diamonds with solid black centers drift across a warm golden ground at an open, relaxed scale. Small hourglass or bowtie shapes fill the spaces between them. The right edge is slightly uneven with a small tear at lower right. It is 19.75 inches across and 21.25 long.

The grid was only ever a suggestion, and the maker took it as one.